/*
 * 	<pre>
 *	EasyPeas.
 *  Copyright (C) 2007 S Owen
 *
 *  This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 *  modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
 *  License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
 *  version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 *
 *  This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 *  Lesser General Public License for more details.
 *
 *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
 *  License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
 *  Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
 * 
 * Jul 24, 2007
 * Timer.java
 * </pre>
 */
package org.easypeas.util;


/**
 * A very naive timer that can be used for timing a piece of code.<br>
 * Simply call start, then stop and print.
 * 
 * @author S Owen
 */
// FIXME: look for an real life alternative. Does log4j do this?
public class Timer {
	@SuppressWarnings("unused")

	private long start;

	private long end = -1;

	/**
	 * Starts the timer.
	 */
	public void start() {
		start = System.currentTimeMillis();
	}

	/**
	 * Stops the timer.
	 */
	public void stop() {
		end = System.currentTimeMillis();
	}

	/**
	 * Gets a new instance of the timer.
	 * 
	 * @return the timer
	 */
	public static Timer getTimer() {
		return new Timer();
	}

	/**
	 * 
	 * @return the string representation of the timer details, for logging
	 */
	public String toString() {
		return "Start=" + start + ", end=" + end + ", duration="
				+ (end - start);
	}
}
